BRANT. 
147 
December, or until the weather becomes very severe, when these 
also move off southwardly. During their stay they feed on the 
bars at low water, seldom or never in the marshes ; their princi- 
pal food being a remarkably long and broad-leaved marine plant, 
of a bright green color, which adheres to stones, and is called by 
the country people sea-cabbage ; the leaves of this are sometimes 
eight or ten inches broad by two or three feet in length ; they also 
eat small shell-fish. They wade about feeding at low water. Dur- 
ing the time of high water they float in the bay in long lines, par- 
ticularly in calm weather. Their voice is hoarse and honking, and 
when some hundreds are screaming together, reminds one of a 
pack of hounds in full cry. They often quarrel among lliemselves, 
and with the Ducks, driving the latter off their feeding ground. 
Though it never dives in search of food, yet when wing-broken the 
Brant will go one hundred yards at a stretch under water; and is 
considered, in such circumstances, one of the most difficiilt birds 
to kill. About the fifteenth or twentieth of May they re-appear on 
their way north ; but seldom stop long, unless driven in by tem- 
pestuous weather. 
The breeding place of the Brant is supposed to be very far 
to the north. They are common at Hudson’s bay ; very numerous 
in winter on the coasts of Holland and Ireland ; are called in Shet- 
land Harra Geese, from their frequenting the sound of that name ; 
they also visit the coast of England. Buffon relates, that in the 
severe winters of 1740 and 1765, during the prevalence of a strong 
north wind, the Brant visited the coast of Picardy in France, in 
prodigious multitudes, and committed great depredations on the 
corn, tearing it up by the roots, trampling and devouring it ; and 
notwithstanding the exertions of the inhabitants, who were con- 
stantly employed in desU'oying them, they continued in great force 
until a change of weather carried them off. 
The Brant generally weighs about four pounds avoirdupois, 
and measures two feet in length, and three feet six inches in ex- 
